The Villa Times - 18/04/2013

A message from The Football Supporters' Federation Fellow fan, The Football Supporters' Federation needs your support to help bring down the price of tickets, with our Twenty's Plenty for Away Tickets Petition. See: FSF - Twenty's Plenty for Away Tickets Petition

Gary Gardner has tweeted that after returning to training back in March, he returned to training with the first team yesterday. Been a disappointing season for the lad again with another serious injury but his recovery has been bright and ahead of schedule and in the interviews and tweets he has done he's always sounded bright and bubbly which has obviously had an impact. See: Gardner Returns To First Team Training

It's Nathan Baker's turn to talk about the belief in the camp and their belief that they can do enough to avoid relegation this season. Speaking to the Official Site with five games to go, Baker said that if absolutely needed he trusts the Villa will head into the Wigan game and get the result we want to avoid the drop, but it's in our hands and we can't expect favours from anybody. See: Baker - We'll Keep Doing What We're Doing

Stiliyan Petrov has talked about easing himself back into a normal life after his long battle against Leukaemia. The Official Site carry a 15 minute video showing some Villa highlights and then Stan talking when he again visited Bodymoor Heath the other day. The above link also takes you to a Q&A session he held. I'll cherry pick some of the responses.....: Stan - Life Returning To Normal

Fabian Delph has said he is willing to miss the birth of his first child in order to help Villa keep our Premiership status. Despite the headline I will refuse to make any childish cracks about Delph risking being relegated from the bedroom if he does indeed miss the birth! Read more: Delph Might Not Score Again

We`ve agonised as Villans all season and we still don`t have a clue! Every time we see a hint of an improvement, we seem to go back into our shells. The Fulham draw was two points lost to me, not because I am arrogant about Fulham (after-all, they are above us) but because they have little to nothing to play for and I thought our guys would be all blood and thunder, playing every game like a local derby. I was wrong. I just hope this lack of battle doesn`t cost us at the end of this wretched season. Read more: So Come On Then. Are Villa Staying Up Or Not?!

I didn't see all the game, but Villa would've been worthy winners given their performance and domination for large parts of what I watched. Just a shame it wasn't to be when Daniel Johnson uncharacteristically missed from the spot with about 10 minutes left in the game. See: U21s Can't Quite Beat Chelsea